STEVE HARRIS Speaks Out Against “Pay-to-Play”

“The thing that annoys me is that I hate it when people charge bands to play with them. I hate that. I’ve never done that, ever done that with MAIDEN, and I never will do it, with MAIDEN or BRITISH LION, because, to me, it’s just wrong. A band should get at least some expenses [covered] to play a gig, and they shouldn’t have to pay anybody to play, and I’ve always been really against that…”

The “pay-to-play” scheme has been a regular practice over recent years since the cost of entertainment has risen, especially in the United States. Venues are more reliant on acts to bring in their own audience and sell their own tickets to cut costs on publicity. According to Music Think Tank.com, one of the issues with this practice is “Pay-to-play events are notorious for not giving the musicians good value for money. Unless you’re guaranteed a set amount of highly targeted people turning up to this event and you’re free to promote to them as you need, than stay well clear. A lot of the time, you’ll be wasting your money paying to play.”

Harry states that he is among those who find a mutual by benefit lifting each other up, when possible.

He said, “I don’t know, but the at the end of the day, it’s nice to give something back…If you help them and they’re experiencing things for the first time, it’s nice to see. I love to see it.”